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Thinking Outside The Box: An Inside Look at Homeschooling

Interview

Editor: Faye McCray

*This is from an interview that Faye McCray conducted with me back in 2016.

In 2015, the National Home Education Research Institute estimated that 220,000 African American children are currently being homeschooled. In fact, our families are among one of the fastest growing demographics in the homeschooling community making up an estimated 10% of the homeschooling population. Research has demonstrated that our journey to homeschooling is unique. While many Caucasian families cite religious or moral reasons for their choice to home school, African American families often cite frustration with the traditional education system. This frustration stems from everything from a perceived culture of low expectations for our children to prejudice amongst their peers to the systemic exclusion of African American contribution to American history.

Whatever the motivations, homeschooling is yielding positive results. The National Home Education Research Institute reports, “[w]hile controlling for gender of student and family socioeconomic status, homeschooling students yielded 42 percentile points higher in reading, 26 percentile points higher in language skills, and 23 percentile points higher in math than if public schooled. This summer, the Bush family, a homeschooling family of eleven from Boca Raton, Florida made headlines for their incredible academic achievements which includes two teenagers with master’s degrees and a mom who is an architect and attorney. Stories like these are not uncommon but are these results typical? What does it mean to “homeschool” and is it a realistic goal for “the rest of us”?

I had the opportunity to chat with Kristina Brooke Daniele, extraordinary homeschooling mom and creator of For Love of Education, a blog chronicling her and her family’s homeschooling journey. She shared her journey to homeschooling and valuable lessons she has learned along the way.